


back on the ground

by molniya



Category: Borderlands
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-23
Updated: 2015-05-23
Packaged: 2018-03-31 20:36:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3991915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/molniya/pseuds/molniya
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The humidifier had stopped working, that extra-must of hers that helped save her skin from cracking, since engine grease only went so far and she couldn't wear that shit to bed. Janey could tell from the blood clogging her nose and trickling down the back of her throat — less now that she was awake to tilt her head so it stopped.</p>
            </blockquote>





	back on the ground

Elpis was dry as fuck.

Came with Dahl's former territory — you colonise a planet, you may as well set up shop on its singular lava lizard-infested satellite (and one of your competitors might probably tag along and build a giant artificial H-shaped orbiter to boot). No natural oxygen sources? Engineer some. Make them cheap as chips. Release the tech to the poor bastards you brought to work on this hellhole, then abandon every last one of them when capitalism sucks the natural resources dry. Whatever you like.

Not that that was any of Janey's concern, though she loved a bit of context, adored sifting through the nitty gritty and salvaging the best, most salient bits. That was how she found inspiration. Also the same way she'd landed a girlfriend, which was quite the bonus since she'd only been after spare parts, none of them specifically Atlas-sourced.

Athena was out cold in Janey's bunk. Janey would have loved to stay right there with her, but the manufactured air she breathed leached any moisture she might have had from her lungs, her mouth, her skin. 

She left, manoeuvring to freedom from Athena's sleep-heavy limbs. 

So: Elpis was dry, and living there dried Janey out in turn. She'd read things about it especially after the kraggons got her. Stuff like investing in a humidifier was a no-brainer, since a breathable atmosphere didn't necessarily guarantee a humid one. Occlusives and the like were slightly less obvious, though Janey'd had prescriptions and things to help her through her burn treatments.

Painkillers, mostly. Some creams. The kind of grief and rage that eclipsed even the fourth-degree burns that crawled from her thigh all the way up her left side and half her throat that it was a miracle her insides had only partially cooked and tenderised.

The humidifier had stopped working, that extra-must of hers that helped save her skin from cracking, since engine grease only went so far and she couldn't wear that shit to bed. Janey could tell from the blood clogging her nose and trickling down the back of her throat — less now that she was awake to tilt her head so it stopped. She swallowed some of it, breathing out through her mouth, pressing the back of her wrist to her nose.

God, but she never missed this, the copper on her palate and tongue, the parching inside and out. She was so uncomfortable in her own skin, feeling no alleviation by way of the pride she felt in surviving her scars. Janey knew the beginnings of cracks in her curves, like she might burst at half her seams if she moved too fast. 

But that wouldn't _really_ happen. Not with the liquid skin grafts they'd given her, blessed shelter for the raw muscle and guts that lay beneath. Forget burning alive: healing had been a special agonising hell all on its own.

Water first, she decided, padding over to the kitchen sink. Water for drinking, then a shower — sorbolene for her side, and then a top-up for the humidifier — then back to bed with Athena.

Athena usually slept light, but she was back from her contract with Jack, which often had her hooning around sleepless for days on end. Her love was home, Janey realised all over again as she drank. It didn't soothe her burns but it lit her up — giddiness in her heart, closing her eyes — it spurred her to almost silent laughter under the hum of the O2 generator.

She'd really better hurry up. If Janey took too long, Athena would miss her.

**Author's Note:**

> title from pendulum's "sounds of life" ft. jasmine yee


End file.
